Arkansas Blog: A day for candlelight?

Thirty-two years ago this morning, a gray pall enveloped the city. The humid air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Thunderstorms were threatening.

I remember because it was a momentous day. Late in the morning, I was married at Westover Hills Presbyterian Church. Ellen and I had a brunch afterward. Art Porter played the piano. Thirty-two years later, I'm lucky to say, the marriage endures.

So what do you do for a 32d anniversary? Dinner out is always nice. As it happens, a number of Little Rock restaurants are having a "lights out" night tonight -- candles instead of conventional lighting to go easy on the environment. Sounds romantic, no?

But then I got a note yesterday from a correspondent at UAMS. He wrote:

Regarding the hyped "lights out" that several Little Rock restaurants are touting for Thursday night, there seems to be an assumption that candles don't generate CO2. In fact, they do -- about 3.67 pounds for every pound of candlewax consumed! It's been estimated that commercial electricity generates CO2 at a rate of about a kilogram per kilowatt-hour consumed. By that calculation, a room lit by 10 light fixtures, each burning three 32-watt fluorescent bulbs, would generate 8.42 lbs of CO2 in four hours. Now, I'm not sure how much candlewax one goes through in four hours, but if we assumed it was 3 ounces per candle, you'd generate the same level of CO2 with just a dozen candles!

I mean, I'm all for Earth Day and enviromentalism-- you'll find me huggin' a tree at least once a week. But this candelight dinner just seems like a poorly thought-out stunt to me.

So there you go. Much as I might like to treat my wife to a fancy dinner, tonight, would I end up worrying about the environmental impact? So how about Sloppy Joes and "Countdown" around the video hearth, flourescent lightbulbs blazing? Sounds pretty good to me, not to mention typical.

Happy anniversary, hon.

Comments

The best anniversary present: Every day for the rest of your/her life, tell her how beautiful she is and how much you love her. Trust me.

Posted by: Louie | April 24, 2008 07:31 AM

Louie has it pegged. Always tell them. Always. There may come a time when you cannot.

Posted by: Cato | April 24, 2008 07:38 AM

I don't suppose y'all dressed up like George and Martha Washington in observance of the Bicentennial, did you? That might have been on the dorky side; but Art Porter at the piano? How cool! Congratulations.

Posted by: hugh mann | April 24, 2008 07:46 AM

Max. DEFINITELY dinner out. You can tape Olberman and see it when you get home.

Posted by: mag | April 24, 2008 08:42 AM

Max,

If the UAMS correspondent paid closer attention to the several news accounts that have covered this event, he would have noticed that these restaurants are using soy candles. These candles are made in Marion, Arkansas by Southern Soy Scents and are a renewable resource that emits less carbon dioxide and produces less soot and other carcinogens than those made from petroleum-based paraffin wax.

Why is that every time and group of well intentioned citizens band together to shine a light on environmental issues, someone must discount it as a stunt and use it as an opportunity to show how smart they think they are?

Posted by: J.D. Lowery | April 24, 2008 09:09 AM

Ellen and Max...best wishes to you both! I agree Keith, Jon & Stephen can wait.

Posted by: Roym | April 24, 2008 09:38 AM

Happy anniversary you two...shoot for 32 more...

Y'all have a few years on mrs rosso and me...I hope we can have as many happys as you...

As an aside, we have had a wonderful experience so far with our boy going to Westover a couple of times a week...

Man...Art Porter?!

Posted by: rosso | April 24, 2008 09:52 AM

Congrats, Max. You're obviously doing something right, and should keep doing it, doing it, doing it. I'll have managed to keep Mrs. scrumdown for 23 years come Saturday, and I couldn't live without her.

Posted by: Whoscrumdown | April 24, 2008 11:39 AM

I agree with Louie. But if you really want to do it up, come up with something you two can remember for another 32 years. Take Fifi for a walk on the Big Dam Bridge. Maybe take Miz Ellen to one of those parking spots you used to frequent, if they're not all developed like mine are. Leave Fifi home for this one.
Or go for broke -- the two of you can moon Mikey if you can find him. Do it when no one else is looking and everyone will figure he really is nuts. Just watch out for cell phone cameras.
Happy anniversary, you two. I hope you enjoy many, many more.

Posted by: Doigotta | April 24, 2008 11:50 AM

Congratulations, Max/Ms. Max! That cake looks delicious...but I'm very hungry. (Jazzy...what's on the menu?) And I like your dinner/entertainment plans!

Thirty-three for us...thanks to my sweet nature and, well, charming ways. (That's MY story, honey, and I'm definitely sticking with it.)

Posted by: zelda | April 24, 2008 11:55 AM

Happy Day, Max and Ellen, many, many more. Do any thing you like, long as its together.
Zelda, marinating chicken breast, for the grill, good ole fashion creamy mac 'n sharp cheese,
cho pie in graham cracker crust.

Posted by: jazzy | April 24, 2008 12:11 PM

FOR MAX AND ELLEN

click

Posted by: jazzy | April 24, 2008 12:39 PM

Thirty two years! Definitely puts you in a minority in America.

Love much and laugh often, many congrats to you both.

Posted by: L.Wood | April 24, 2008 02:40 PM

Happy anniversary and many glorious and loving returns Max and Judge/Prof Brantley. (I haven't called you "Ellen" in the 24 years since you got me in law school; I can't start now.)

Posted by: TAP | April 24, 2008 07:37 PM

"Why is that every time and group of well intentioned citizens band together to shine a light on environmental issues, someone must discount it as a stunt and use it as an opportunity to show how smart they think they are?"

Because intelligence is necessary to solve the climate change crisis, silly! All the good intentions in the world won't make a lick o' difference if they're not based in fact. And the fact is that soy generates no less carbon dioxide than paraffin. To argue otherwise just demonstrates a lack of even the most rudimentary understanding of chemistry. All candles burn hydrocarbons. The chemical reaction we call "burning" is simply the replacement of the hydrogen bound to the carbon atoms with oxygen. Saturated hydrocarbons-- whether from petroleum, soy, or potato chips-- are about 85% carbon. All of them. When you break that down and add oxygen, it makes carbon dioxide. In the same proportions, regardless of where the carbon originally came from.

Yours truly,
UAMS Correspondent

Posted by: Neuroglider | April 25, 2008 08:50 AM

Arkansas Blog

A day for candlelight?

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